Daily Archives: September 23, 2021
Should the next fisheries minister come from central Canada?
On election night, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s first cabinet casualty came early as Fisheries Minister Bernadette Jordan tumbled to defeat in Nova Scotia’s South Shore, St. Margarets riding. Her defeat means her successor will inherit the unresolved dispute over Nova Scotia’s Indigenous moderate livelihood lobster fishery. And that potentially means a clean slate for negotiations between all parties involved. And the chief of the band at the centre of that fishery says maybe the best way to establish that clean slate would be to enlist a fisheries minister from the interior, rather than the coasts, where they would be exposed to the pressures of their community. >click to read< 20:33
Celebrating 140 years of the Fishermen’s Mission
A charity which looks after the welfare of fishermen and their families is celebrating its 140th anniversary with a special eBook. The Fishermen’s Mission was founded in 1881 and has been looking after fishing communities since then. As part of its 140th anniversary the charity has produced am online eBook which looks back to the early days of the charity as well as focussing on their essential work today of caring for UK fishermen and their families. The Fishermen’s Mission 140th eBook can be found here >click to read< 14:12
Search expert applauds provincewide push to keep looking for missing N.L. fishermen
A retired coast guard search and rescue coordinator says he’s impressed with the effort now going into the search for two fishers who went missing off the coast of Labrador last week. Merv Wiseman says the provincewide outpouring of support for the fishermen and their families is likely what pushed officials to bring in so many resources to keeping looking for the men and their vessel. Marc Russell and Joey Jenkins left the small Labrador community of Mary’s Harbour last Friday aboard the Island Lady fishing vessel and never returned home. >click to read< 13:03
After Hurricane Ida: Louisiana’s struggling seafood industry is teetering
The Category 4 hurricane that struck Louisiana late last month fractured some parts of the industry even worse than 2005’s Katrina, which cost seafood businesses more than $1 billion. No one yet knows how many boats, docks and processors were lost because of Ida’s relentless, 150-mph winds. Vessels that made it to the safest harbors fared the best, yet even some of them were destroyed by the storm’s fury. Unable to speak for a decade since cancer surgery, Dale Williams gets by on disability payments of $1,300 a month. Living in a mobile home at Port Sulphur on the west bank of the Mississippi River, he supplements his income by catching shrimp with a little boat he parked in his front yard for Hurricane Ida. Ida’s Category 4 winds flipped Williams’ trawler on its side, bending the frame and tearing nets,,, The goal is to get back on the water by October, he said, either with the damaged boat or another one that fared better. >click to read< 10:44
Nunavut Inuit suing feds over fishing license allocations to Mi’kmaw company
In a lawsuit filed earlier this month, Nunavut Tunngavik Incorporated and the Qikiqtani Inuit Association asked the federal court to quash a decision by Canada’s Minister of Fisheries and Oceans to transfer the licences for Greenland halibut and shrimp from seafood company Clearwater Foods to the coalition, after the Mi’kmaw group partnered to buy the company in January. Reached by phone on Wednesday, Jordan, through her staff, declined to comment following her loss in Monday’s federal election. The lawsuit describes how Nunavut fishers have only held about 50 per 
cent of total fishing quotas for all species off Nunavut’s coast, which Inuit argue is disproportionately low compared to the 90 per cent that fisheries in Atlantic provinces have off their own coasts, an acknowledgement the federal government and DFO have made on several occasions. >click to read< 09:28
Sanford fined for crew member’s ‘avoidable’ death
Sanford Limited has been fined $375,000 and ordered to pay $121,860 reparations and $35,000 costs to the family of a crew member who died on one of its fishing vessels,,, Steffan Antony Stewart, 26, of New Plymouth, died after becoming entangled in machinery on the factory fishing vessel, San Granit, on November 14, 2018. Stewart had entered part of an automated freezer system to clear a blockage. When the system activated he became caught and was fatally injured by moving parts of the system. “The factory supervisor checked workers every hour. However, the factory supervisor on Mr Stewart’s shift was unfamiliar with the automated freezer system and therefore limited in their ability to monitor and provide the supervision necessary to help keep workers safe. >click to read< 08:39
Ship Strike: Japanese tanker docks with a 32-foot dead whale stuck on its bow
A 32-foot whale carcass has been found wedged on the bow of a Japanese tanker as it pulled into harbour. Shocking images show the huge creature sprawled over the vessel in the port of Mizushima in Kurashiki city on Tuesday. The coast guard was called out to the harbour after locals caught sight of the dead whale. Local news site Yomiuri reported that the tanker had sailed through the Pacific Ocean on its way to Mizushima port and the crew claimed they had no idea that they had hit a whale. >click to read< 07:46
